We have come into this place
to call upon His name and worship Him. We have come into this place
to call upon His name and worship Him. We have come into this place
to call upon His name and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ, the
Lord. So forget about yourself and
magnify His name and worship Him. So forget about yourself,
magnify His name, and worship Him. So forget about yourself,
magnify His name, and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ, the
Lord. We are debtors to His grace,
the law's been satisfied, now worship Him. We are debtors to
His grace. The law's been satisfied. Now worship Him. We are debtors to His grace. The law's been satisfied. Now worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ the
Lord. We are chosen in His grace, redeemed
by His blood, now worship Him. We are chosen in His grace, redeemed
by His blood, now worship Him. We are chosen in His grace, redeemed
by His blood, now worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Jesus Christ, the
Lord. He is all our righteousness,
I stand in Him complete. Now worship Him, He is all our
righteousness, I stand in Him complete, now worship Him. He is all our righteousness,
I stand in Him complete, now worship Christ the Lord. Good morning. I want to do something this morning
that I haven't done in 20 years. But I want to preface this by
saying that I believe this will be a testimony to His grace. We're not interested in exalting
any man, and never in 20 years have I asked folks to stand during
the service. But as a testimony to His grace,
and as an encouragement to His body, I want to ask those who
met with us 20 years ago at Petals, to stand. Would you please do
that? Thank you. Thank you. Hugo, you
were there. Thank the Lord. I'm thankful
for you all. I'm thankful that the Lord has
been faithful to keep us and has added to our fellowship over
the years. Tom's going to come lead us in
the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. Dearest of all the names above,
my Jesus and my God, who can resist thy heavenly love or trifle
with thy blood? "'Tis by the merits of thy death
the Father smiles again. "'Tis by thine interceding breath
the Spirit dwells with men." Till God in human flesh I see,
my thoughts no comfort find. The holy just and sacred three
are terrors to my mind. But if Emmanuel's face appear,
my hope, my joy begins. His name forbids my slavish fear. His grace removes my sin. While Jews on their own law rely
and greats of wisdom boast, I love the incarnate mystery, and there
I fix my trust. Please be seated. morning. A scripture reading
this morning is found in Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11 25. Matthew 11 25. At that time Jesus
answered and said, This is our Lord Jesus Christ
praying to the Father. I thank thee, O Father, Lord
in heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my father. And no man knoweth the son but
the father. Neither knoweth any man the father
save the son. And he whomsoever the son will
reveal him. How gracious things that is to
us that the father will rebuild the servant. In the next verse says, now to
us, to all of us, the Lord Jesus Christ says, come unto me. All ye that are labor and heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. For I am meek and lowly at heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light. Father God, we come before you
this morning in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by his merits
and his merits alone. First, we thank you, we praise
you that you have been faithful to us, Father, and that you have
kept us here, this church, for 20 years. And it is the testimony
of your faithfulness, Father, and we thank you for this. We
thank you for all the grace we have received by knowing Christ. by knowing more of him, Father.
We now pray for this service. We pray that you might send your
Holy Spirit in a special way to all of us that are listening
and to the brother who's preaching Christ, Lord. Father, we ask
that you send your spirit. We need it, we desperately need
it in order to see more of Christ, Father. And bring us all, bring
us to Christ. Bring our attention and our everything
onto him, Father. Draw us to him. And we pray this
also for all the other churches that are preaching Christ this
morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's stand together, number
168 from the hardback temple, 168. Let's all stand together,
even me. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering, full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me,
let thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to thee. I am longing for thy favor whilst
thou art calling, O calling. me. Even me, even me, let thy
blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty spirit,
thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of of Jesus' merit,
speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not thy lost one bringing,
bind my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the streams of life are
springing, Blessing others, O bless me, Even me, even me, Let Thy
blessing fall on me. Please be seated. Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder consider all the worlds I have seen. ? I hear the rolling thunder ?
? Like powers from above ? ? The universe displayed ? ? Then sings my soul ? ? My Savior
God to Thee ? ? How great Thou art ? ? How great Thou art ? ? Then sings
my soul ? ? My Savior God to Thee ? ? How great Thou art ?
? How great Thou art ? ? When through the world ? ? And for my spades I wander ?
? And hear the birds ? ? Sing sweetly in the trees ? ? When
I look down ? ? From lofty mountain grander ? ? And hear the brook
? ? And feel the gentle breeze ? ? Then sings my soul ? ? My
Savior God to Thee ? ? How great Thou art ? ? How great Thou art ? ? Then sings
my soul ? ? My Savior God to Thee ? ? How great Thou art ?
? How great Thou art ? ? And when I think ? ? That God is
on my spirit ? ? Sent Him to die ? ? My scales can take it all ? ?
But on the cross ? ? My burden gladly
bearing ? ? Even when I die ? ? Tis make away my sins ? ? Then sings my soul ? My Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art Places my
soul My Saviour God, to Thee How great Thou art ? How great
Thou art ? ? When Christ shall come ? ? With
shout of acclamation ? ? And take me home ? ? What joy shall
fill my heart ? ? When I shall walk ? In humble adoration And
in proclaiming My God, how great Thou art Then sings my soul My
Savior God to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art This is my
song My Savior God to me How great Thou art How great Thou art Thank you, Brie. For now we see
through a glass, darkly, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as I am known. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, We should be
made like Him. We shall see Him as He is. Oh,
He's only shown us glimpses of how great He is. One day we're going to see the
fullness of His glory. What a day that'll be. What a
day that'll be. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles, please, to Isaiah chapter 32. Chapter 32. Scripture says of believers that
we have two natures. We have the nature that we were
born with, which is a nature of flesh. Sinful. And then we have Christ in us. The hope of our glory. The new man. comes in the new
birth. And the spirit, that's the spiritual
man, wars against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. There's a civil war, if you will,
that takes place in the hearts of every one of God's people.
And they long for peace and quiet. In their hearts, they long for
peace and quiet. And as the Lord is pleased to
reveal himself, he gives us moments of peace and quiet. And then He stirs up our circumstances
and causes sorrow and conflict and sickness and sin and all
the things that it brings into our lives and turmoil in this
world. And we become disquieted. And
oh how we need Him to minister grace to our hearts and cause
us to be in spite of our circumstances. peace and quiet. I like peace and quiet, don't
you? I like it in my heart. I like it in my home. I like
it in the church. I like it in the community. I
like it in the world when people are peaceful and quiet. We have a great promise from
God this morning. No high hope that he will give
us the faith to believe his promises, because his promises are faithful.
And if he gives us the faith to believe his promise, we will
experience peace and quiet. Here it is, look, you have your
Bibles open to Isaiah chapter 32, look at verse 17, and the
work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effects of righteousness,
quietness and assurance forever. Now that's God's promise, peace
and quiet. The work of righteousness shall,
not might be, not I'm gonna try to create peace. No, it shall
be peace. My peace I leave you, my peace
I give unto you. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the Prince of Peace. And the only hope that you and
I have to experience peace with God is to be found in Him. The work of righteousness Not
your work. You're not going to work yourself
into a place of peace. It's His work. How am I going
to experience this peace? In quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in
a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting
places. Do you need God to make that
promise your experience right now? Do you need God? I mean, Lord,
I've got to have peace and quiet. I've got to have assurance in
my salvation. I've got to have peace with God. I've got to quiet
this stormy, this raging storm of sin that's in my flesh. The
quiet, the circumstances of my life and this world, I need peace
and quiet. Now, religion is all based on
commitment. It's all based on commitment.
Most places you would go today, the preacher would be a motivational
speaker challenging you to become more committed. And if you'll
just get more commitment, then everything will be fine. That's
not what I'm saying. Our commitments, they come and
go, don't they? What we need is not more commitment.
What we need is more need. And if the Lord makes us poor and
needy, we'll fall upon Him for His grace and for His mercy,
and He will minister peace and quiet to our souls, to our hearts. That's His promise. The Bible says that our God can
not lie. He cannot lie. This is promised. He said we shall. My people shall
have a dwelling place, a restful dwelling place. They shall have
assurance. They shall have quietness and
peace of heart. How am I going to get that? Well,
let's back up to verse 15. Until the spirit be poured upon
us from on high We need the Spirit of God When the Lord called on Ezekiel
to preach the gospel to that valley of dry bones, he said,
Son of man, can these bones live? And Ezekiel said, Lord, thou
knowest. If they're going to live, you're
going to have to make them live. And so God commanded the prophet
to prophesy, preach the gospel to the dry bones. You feel like
a dry bone? And the bones began to rattle. Bone came to bone and sinew and
flesh came upon the bones and the scripture says and yet there
was no life in them and So the Lord commanded the prophet prophesied
to the wind Call upon the Spirit of God to come and make that
message. You just preached effectual and
when the Spirit of God came he did for those dry bones and what
he did for Adam in the garden. He breathed life into their nostrils
and they lived. That's what we're... The Lord
says, until the Spirit be poured upon us. Listen to what God says
in Zechariah chapter 12 and it shall come to pass in that day
that I will seek to destroy the nations that come against Jerusalem
and I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. The spirit
of grace and supplication. That's what you and I are in
need of. And the Lord said, if you being evil know how to give
good gifts unto your children, how much more will your heavenly
father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him, Lord, I need
your spirit. The natural man, the scripture
says, cannot receive the things of the spirit. They are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them. Lord, I'm not capable. I'm not capable of knowing you.
I'm not capable. I'll manufacture a substitute
peace. I'll manufacture a substitute
quietness, but it won't minister grace to
my heart. Not unless you send your spirit
and reveal Christ to me. And when he pours out his spirit
on the house of David, they shall look upon him whom they have
pierced. How do I know if God's given
me his spirit? The work of the Spirit of God
is to point you to Christ. That's it. It's expedient for
you that I go away. If I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. But when he comes, The Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost, which the Father will send in my name. He will teach
you all things whatsoever I have told you. So the ministry of
the Holy Spirit is to point us to Christ. We grieve over the
one whom we have pierced. We see that it was our sin that
put the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. And in acknowledging
that, God ministers peace to our hearts knowing that he accomplished
what he went to the cross to do. The Lord Jesus Christ did
not go to Calvary's cross to make an offer of salvation. He's
not waiting for you to do your part so that what he did can
work for you. He actually accomplished the
salvation of all those for whom he died. There's my peace. There's my peace looking unto
Jesus who is the author and the finisher of our faith who for
the joy that was set before him endured the shame of the cross. He's the Alpha and the Omega. So when God sends His Spirit,
go back with me to our text in Isaiah chapter 32, when God sends
His Spirit, when He pours out His Spirit from on high, we come
to see that it is the Spirit that quickeneth. It's the Spirit
that gives life. The flesh profiteth nothing. That which is of the flesh is
flesh. The Lord told Nicodemus, Nicodemus,
you've got to be born from above. You've got to be born of the
Spirit of God. And the Spirit's like the wind, you can't control
him. You can't control him. He listeth
whithersoever he wills. Now what does that truth say
to you and me? If the Lord gives you an understanding
of that, it'll make you a mercy beggar. Lord, Lord, blow my way. Have mercy on my soul. I need peace. My sin, as David
said in Psalm 51, is ever before me. I need the spirit of grace
and supplication to be poured out on me. And here's the Lord's
promise, until the spirit be poured out on high and the wilderness,
that's what we are. Apart from the spirit of God,
we're just a wilderness. We're just a desert. We're just
dry bones. That wilderness shall be made
a fruitful field. And the fruitful field, those
who think that they've got it all worked out, Those who say,
I know God, I've done my part. Those who are looking to their
own righteousness or to their own decision making or their
own will for the hope of their salvation. God says, that will
be made into a forest. In other words, there won't be
any fruit there. Won't be any fruit there. Then
judgment shall dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the
fruitful field. The wrath of God will fall upon
all those who look anywhere outside of the Lord Jesus Christ for
the hope of their salvation. You look into your works, look
into something you've done, a prayer that you prayed, a decision you've
made, life that you're living in hopes that that God's gonna
reward you for that God says judgment's gonna come to the
wilderness but righteousness and peace will remain in the
fruitful field God tells us what righteousness
is he makes it clear that we don't have any We don't have
any righteousness. The things that men pride themselves
in, the things that men look to for the hope of their righteousness,
God says they are filthy rags. We've all gone astray, each into
our own way. We're like wayward sheep. And
there's a way that seems right unto man. The way that seems
right unto man is that I gotta clean my life up. I've gotta
do the right thing. I've gotta bless me for it. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he has saved us. Mercy. Has God made you a mercy
beggar? Lord, I don't have anything.
I don't know anything. I can't do anything. I'm poor
and needy. What am I going to bring to God?
How can a man be right with God? Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
So here again, we see the necessity of the ministry of the Spirit
of God. It's not of Him that willeth.
It's not by man's free will. And it's not of Him that runneth.
It is not by what man does. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy and whom I will out harden. He's the potter,
we're the clay. He has the sovereign right to
make out of the same lump of clay some vessels of honor and
some of dishonor and no man can say unto him, why do you do it
that way? He hath done whatsoever he wills. which he shed abroad abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Lord, that being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I want you to have hope. I do,
I wanna have hope. I wanna have assurance. I wanna
have peace in my soul. I wanna be quiet before God. I wanna be able to hear his voice.
I want to hear. When the prophet Elijah went
to Mount Carmel and defeated the prophets of Baal and then
he fled from Jezebel and went to the mountain of the law, the
scripture says he went to Mount Sinai looking for God at the
law. And the and the the mountain
shook and God wasn't there and the fire burned and God wasn't
there and the wind Blew and God wasn't there. That's all the
law can do Be still and know that I am God
and the Prophet got quiet and Went to hear a still small voice. Oh Lord, I need you to speak
to my soul I need you to give me quietness and assurance and
peace and hope. The world doesn't offer it to
me. The promises of the politicians are empty. Where am I going to
go? God alone tells the truth. What hope He gives to His people,
not by works of righteousness which we have done. But according
to His mercy and grace, He has saved us. Grace. I used this illustration
last Sunday, but I see we have some folks here that weren't
here last week. So I'm going to use it again because it's
a great illustration. You've heard people say that
grace is unmerited favor. Unmerited favor. If you roll
your window down at the intersection and hand a homeless person a
dollar bill, that's unmerited favor. They didn't merit it,
you gave it to them. Grace is so much more than that. It's not unmerited favor. It's
dismerited favor. What if that homeless person
had murdered your only child and then you turned around and
gave them everything you've got? Everything you've got. That's
grace. When the spirit of grace and
supplication is poured onto our hearts, we mourn after Him whom
we have killed. As one mourneth for his only
son, and God turns around and gives us everything he's got. Everything. What hope? What comfort? For by grace are
you saved. Through faith, yeah. But that
faith is a gift of God. It's not of our works. You want peace? You want quiet? You want assurance? It only comes to mercy beggars by
grace. Can't earn it. You don't deserve
it. You can't work for it. You can't
convince God to give it to you He's got to send and how does
he send his spirit faith the scripture says comes by hearing
Why are we doing what we're doing right now? Why are we going into
the Word of God and trying to preach the gospel of God's free
grace? Because we know that this is
the means by which God opens the hearts of his elect and reveals
himself to them Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word
of God Doesn't come by studying doesn't come by works. Why does
God use hearing as the means by which he saves his people?
It's real simple The scripture says the hearing ear and the
seeing eye is of the Lord God's got to give us ears to hear why
is he used hearing? What are you doing right now
Right, I mean right this minute. Nothing. Nothing. I'm doing all the work
right now, aren't I? You're not doing anything. You're
passive. You're passive. And that's why
God uses hearing to save His people. Because He's not going
to let them lift a finger. He's not going to let them do
anything. He's not gonna let them participate. He's not gonna
let them make a contribution. You're going to be passive in
your salvation so that he gets all the glory. All the glory. Lord, I didn't do anything. I
just came and sat down. And you spoke to my heart. You ministered
grace to me by the power of your spirit. You opened the eyes of
my understanding. You revealed Christ to me and
you showed me what I did. The work of righteousness shall
be peace. The only, the means by which
God saves sinners, and sinners are the only ones he saves. This
is the faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Are you the chief of all sinners?
The Apostle Paul believed himself to be. That's the only people
Christ saves. He makes you to be a sinner.
There's the hope. Because sinners flee to Christ.
Sinners flee to Christ. Can we agree that the way God
sees things is the way things really are. Have you ever heard someone say,
well, you know, perception is reality? You ever heard someone
say that? You need to be sensitive to how
people perceive things because to them, their perception is
their reality. You ever watch somebody hallucinate? I've done it several times recently. There's no way of convincing
them that what they perceive to exist doesn't exist. There
are people in the room, no amount of conversation with them is
going to convince them otherwise. They've got things in their hands
that they're handling, and you can tell them there's nothing
there. No, no, it's there. It's there. Now you can say perception
is their reality, but it's a hallucination. It's not real. It's not there. Don't think that because something's
real to you that that makes it real. What's real is what God says
is real. That's what's real. And everything
else is just an opinion. You know the word heresy in the
Bible is the same word translated opinion. Heresy, the literal translation
of the word heresy is to choose. So when I choose my opinion and
I say well this is what I believe, this is what I think the way
it is, so what? It's a heresy if it's not in
agreement with what God says. What God sees things to be is
the way they really are and everything else is nothing more than a figment
of our imagination. It is a hallucination. It's not
real. So if I'm gonna have peace and
assurance and quietness of soul, I've got to see things the way
God sees them. Would you agree with that? And
the Lord has told us in his word how he sees things. Let me show you. Paul said in
1 Corinthians chapter 4, he said, Take what other men say as an
opinion of myself. And then in the next verse he
says, I don't even judge myself. So here's my question to you
and me this morning. What right do you have worrying
about what other people think about you? Hey, we go through
this world fearing men, don't we? And men love the praise of
other men. And Paul said in 1 Corinthians
chapter 4, I don't pass judgment on myself based on the opinions
of others. And then he goes, in the next verse he says, I
don't even judge myself. Now here's my second question.
What right do you have worrying about what you think about yourself? What does it matter? The whole
world's talking about self-esteem. Well, that's just perception.
Don't make your perception reality if your perception is a hallucination. Here's my question. What does
God say about us? Because that's the only thing
that matters. I know the thoughts that I think
towards you. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil. To bring you to an expected end.
I have loved you with an everlasting love. You are the body of Christ. You are the apple of God's eye. The scripture calls the church
his beloved. I have nothing but good for you.
Hearing his love not that we love God We don't we don't measure
love by our love towards God But that he loved us and gave
his son as a propitiation for our sins So the only person's
opinion of you that matters is God's You agree with that Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13 says,
neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight,
but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with
whom we must do. Everything's naked and open to
God. He doesn't hallucinate. He doesn't have imaginations. He sees things for what they
really are. And the only hope that you and I have to have the
peace of God rule in our hearts, the only way that we can have
our sins forgiven, the only way that we can have quietness of
soul and assurance of salvation is to agree with God. And everything else is just perception. It's just opinion. It's just
man's idea God says everything's open to me man looks at the outward
appearance God's looking at the heart and Genesis chapter 6 here's
what God says about you and about me when I look into the heart
of man I see Here's the way God sees it. I see that every imagination
of his heart is only evil and that continually. Now that's
what God says about you and me. Oh, there's such liberty in that.
You fight against that. You resist God on that. And you'll
die in your sins. Hey, Lord, I can't even begin
to see every imagination of my heart being evil before you.
But if that's the way you see it, then that's the way it is.
That's the way it is. Job said in Job 15, 15, the heavens
are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man that drinketh iniquity like water? That's the way God sees it. The inanimate objects of the
universe, the things that have no moral standard, no life to
them, they're not clean in his sight. Why? Because he's holy. How can a man be clean before
God? Behold, even the moon and the stars are not pure in his
sight. How much less a man that's born
of a woman in his sight. Everything's naked before God.
And God says in my sight, you're a sinner. You can't do anything
but sin in my sight. And so man knows he's got a problem. He knows that there is a God
with whom he must do. And so what does he do? He goes
about trying to earn his own righteousness. Being ignorant of the righteousness
of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth, he goes about trying to establish
his own righteousness. He has a zeal for God, but it's
not according to knowledge. It's not according to truth.
He's hallucinating. And he'll hallucinate himself
right into the grave if he doesn't believe the way God sees it. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. In his sight. His sight's the only sight that
matters. We can't see clearly. We will hallucinate. But in his
sight, no flesh is justified before God by the deeds of the
law. That means there's no obedience that you can perform to justify
yourself before God. That's why our text says, and
the work of righteousness shall be peace. You can't do the work
of righteousness. Christ did the work of righteousness.
And when the comfort of the Holy Spirit comes, he convicts God's
people of sin because they believe not on Him. Not believing on
Christ. Looking somewhere other than
Christ for the hope of our salvation. Here's what God says, Colossians
chapter one, verse 21 and 22, you were alienated and enemies
in your heart toward God. But now he has reconciled you
in the body of his flesh through death to present you to present
you. God's reconciled us through the
body of Christ. Christ bore in his body all the
sins of all God's people, suffered the wrath of God, and satisfied
the demands of God's justice. And God says, Christ did this
in order to present you holy. Holy? Yes, and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. So how can I go from being nothing
but sin in the sight of God to being holy and unreprovable? Only if I'm found in Him. Not
having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that righteousness
which is by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Christ. Look to Christ. Rest in Christ. Rely upon Christ.
Nothing else does God credit for righteousness. No other hope. This is the way
God sees it. And I'm here to tell you, the
whole human race is hallucinating. They are! And to them, perception is reality,
but it's not real. It's not real. Oh, I want to be presented before
God wholly? Wholly? Sinless? Unblameable? Nothing that God can charge me
with? Who shall deliver me, Paul said, of the body of this death? Thanks be to God, through Christ
Jesus I am free. There is now, therefore, no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Nothing to be condemned for.
Sins put away. It's covered by the blood of
Christ. There's no condemnation. I'm unblameable. I'm unreprovable. God can't find anything. He said,
I've separated your sins from you as far as the East is from
the West. And I, God speaking now, I remember them no more. You remember your sins. God says,
if you're in Christ, I'll remember. Now, I want to believe what God
says. I want to believe the way God
sees it is the way it is. It's not how you see it. It's
not how I see it. I'll conclude with this. You
remember the story of the woman at the well in John chapter 4?
After the Lord revealed himself to her, This woman had been married
five times. The man she was living with was
not her husband. What a sad life. You talk about conflict. Some
of you know what it's like to go through a divorce. It's heart-wrenching. There's
no peace. There's no quietness. She'd done that five times. The Lord said, I must need to
go through Samaria. I've got a child there I'm going
to save. And I've given her a long leash
and she's made a mess of her life. But I'm going to have mercy
on her. I'm going to save her. And he
reveals himself to her. And she, she was at the well
in the middle of the day because she was ashamed to go in the
early hours of the morning because all the other women would have
been talking about her. And she left her water pot and
she ran back down into Sychar. I'm sure she lived most of her
days with a veil over her head and her head hung, you know,
trying to stay in the shadows away from people. She runs back
down in the city and she says, come, meet a man who told me
everything that ever I did. Now everybody in town knew what
she had done. And she's announcing that there's a man on the hill
up there by the well. And he told me everything that
ever I did. He sees our lives. And here's what he says. Every
single thing that you've ever done, Not just the things you're
ashamed of. Not just the things you don't
want people to know about. Every thought you've ever had, every
word you've ever spoken, everything you've ever done, he says is
sin. Secondly, everything that you
are in Christ is without sin. perfect, holy,
unblameable, unreprovable, righteous. He that sanctifyeth and they
that are sanctified are all as one, whereby he is not ashamed
to call them his brethren. He's not ashamed to call a sinner
his brother. Why? Because God made him who
knew no sin to be made sin, to be sin. He put away those sins that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. And she shall
be called the Lord our righteousness. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. And in Christ, you're sinless.
And God's not counting what you've done outside of Christ. That's
been covered. That's been put away. Come meet a man. Come meet a
man. When he speaks to you, he's going
to show you that everything you've ever done is nothing but sin.
And everything that Christ ever did for you was nothing but righteousness. And He'll give you peace and
quietness and assurance of salvation. I want to ask those that are
going to be baptized if they'll get ready now. And let's have
a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for Your Word. Oh, how we pray that Your Spirit
would minister grace to our hearts and cause us to see things the
way You see them. We confess to You, Lord, that
we have distorted the truth. We have believed our perceptions
to be reality. Lord, conform our thinking our
hearts, our hope, to the way you see it. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. We bless the name of Christ the
Lord. We bless him for his holy word. Who loved to do his Father's
will. And all his righteousness fulfilled. We follow him with pure delight,
To sanctify his sacred rites, And thus our faith with water
seal, To prove obedience that we Baptized in God the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, three in one, with conscience free, we rest
in God, in love and peace through Jesus' blood. By grace we Abba, Father, cry,
By grace the Comforter comes nigh, And for Thy grace our love
shall be Forever only, Lord, for Thee. I want to try to make it as clear
as we can that there's no hope in a religious right or in an
ordinance that God has given us for our righteousness. Someone recently told me that
now that they had received some special blessings from the church,
they could go to heaven. And we don't believe that for
a minute. But we do rejoice in being able
to confess That the life that Christ lived is my life. The
death that he died is my death. The resurrection that he raised
is my resurrection. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. And so our baptisms, in no way a thief on the cross
wasn't baptized. Had he not died that day, I'm
sure he would have been. Because God's people delight
in the opportunity to publicly confess their hope in Christ
for all their salvation. Mary Tangney has been attending
services over in Sarasota for... How long have we been meeting? All the Sarasota groups here,
by the way. Three years yet? Going on three years, maybe?
and asked me recently if I would baptize her and of course I was
delighted to. Jim and Callie Fendi moved here
from Missouri a few months ago and a lot of the conflict that
they had over the gospel had to do with baptism. And last
Sunday Jim asked me if he could be baptized Of course, I was
delighted, delighted to do it. And Ted Meyer. Ted heard the
gospel about a year ago and came here a few weeks ago and has
been fellowshipping with us and has already made a place among
our family and encouraged us and he's just been such a blessing
to me. If you haven't gotten to know
Ted yet, I encourage you to do so. So without any other further
comments, These believers want you to know that Christ is all
their hope. And I suspect that probably all
of them have gone through some sort of religious rite in the
past that their church called baptism wasn't baptism. Baptism only means anything if
it's done after God gives you faith in Christ. And so, Mary, where's Mary? We'll start with you, Mary, okay? Mary, it is a great joy for us
to witness your public profession of faith in Christ. We baptize
you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, buried with Christ in the Holy Spirit. Raised to walk a new life in
Christ Jesus. That's what God's people said. I mentioned, I think Wednesday
night or last Sunday, that some people confuse the truth of the gospel
by trying to correlate Old Testament circumcision to New Testament
baptism. So there are groups that baptize
their babies because in the Old Testament you're circumcised.
The correlation in the scripture is not between circumcision and
baptism, it's between the circumcision of the flesh and the circumcision
of the heart. Circumcision of the heart is the new birth and
baptism is a whole new sign given in the New Testament to publicly
profess Christ has circumcised my heart and he's given me hope
in himself. As a confession of your faith
in Christ, it's our great joy to baptize you in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, buried with Christ
in baptism. And raised to walk a new life
in Christ Jesus. Amen. Jim. Jim and I had many, many conversations
over several hours, several hours over the issue of baptism. And
I can't tell you how delighted I was, Jim, to have you just
out of the blue saying to me last Sunday, can we be baptized? It is a great joy, brother. to
witness the testimony of your faith in Christ, and to baptize
you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
buried with Christ in baptism, and raised to walk a new life
in Christ Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Ted was over at the house Monday
night, and Jim was there, and I mentioned that Jim was being
baptized, and Ted said, well, I won't be baptized. What about
me? So, brother, it's a great joy
to witness your confession of faith and to baptize you in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, buried with
Christ in baptism. Praise and welcome to life in
Christ Jesus. And I've told folks our baptistry,
amen? Amen. I've told folks our baptistry
looks kind of like a coffin. Very appropriate. Let's stand together. I want
to ask, I asked earlier how many of those of you met with us in
Petals. Petals was a company that Michael Etheridge was the
plant manager for in Longwood. 20 years ago. And Michael's been
such a blessing to our fellowship. He's preached the gospel faithfully
to us on many occasions. He's been a great, great help
and encouragement to me. And I'm so very thankful for
him. Michael, would you lead us in prayer, please, and ask
for his blessings on the meal? I want to thank Jennifer, my
daughter, and Jill for all the work in putting together of the
events for this afternoon and the food. I think they want you
to go out these back doors if possible. Try not to go out that
door because that will logjam everything if you go out that
door. So go out one of the other doors. Michael, please. We bless the Republic for her honor. Lord, our words seem so
faint, so weak, as we try to express our love for you. We're thankful that the salvation
of our souls is in your hands. But there we can have hope. It's
not enough. Lord, I am so grateful to you.